


Casual Observers: Hopeful Sister-in-Laws

by Browneyesparker



Series: Casual Observers [5]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Romance, Sister-in-laws, girl meets world - Freeform, joshaya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 13:37:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4668608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browneyesparker/pseuds/Browneyesparker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Would Life be kind enough to bring two more kids together like she had brought them together? At such a young age? With so much at stake with Maya’s parents, Kermit and Katy, on the edge of divorce? With a three year age difference that would matter when Maya was in her first year of high school and Josh on his way to college? Joshaya from Topanga's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casual Observers: Hopeful Sister-in-Laws

 

 **Chapter 5**  

_Hopeful Sister-in-Laws_

It started the summer when they first brought Maya to visit Philadelphia with them. When Maya entered the kitchen, Josh couldn’t take his eyes off of her as she walked in arm-arm with Riley. For her part, Maya was staring at Josh with wide blue eyes, it was like she didn’t know what to make of him but she liked what she saw.

Topanga concealed a smirk. She knew for a fact that once a Matthews boy fell, they fell hard and long and nobody else would do. She was looking forward to see the way that their story unfolded. And their story started that summer without fanfare or bravado like young romances usually did. They liked each other instantly and that was enough for them.

By the giddy look on her husband’s face, she knew he had put two-and-two together too. They talked about it together in whispers. They asked each other questions at night, while they were lying in bed in Morgan’s old room.

Would Life be kind enough to bring two more kids together like she had brought them together? At such a young age? With so much at stake with Maya’s parents, Kermit and Katy, on the edge of divorce? With a three year age difference that would matter when Maya was in her first year of high school and Josh on his way to college.

Cory was sure that it _was_. Life knew what she was doing, she _always_ did.

Topanga was encouraged by his belief. It _had_ been what kept them together this whole time, it was why they were lying in bed together instead of in different beds, in different cities. It was why they had a beautiful daughter and a wonderful life together. It was why Josh and Maya had met and fell into instant like with each other.

She knew Cory was right, of course, Life _did_ know what she was doing.

So, she allowed the giddiness to creep over her too and watched as her young brother-in-law was swept away on a wave that was young love.

**.**

Her favorite moment of the whole entire summer was one she and Cory caught together. It was a rainy afternoon and everybody was stuck in the house. They were gathering up the kids to take them to a movie when they walked into the living room and saw Josh holding a teetering Maya up as they both did their very best to dance to _Can You Feel the Love Tonight_.

It was the sweetest thing, the way Josh looked in one of Alan’s discarded suit coats and the way he was holding Maya steady because she was trying to wear a pair of Amy’s old high heels and they were too big for her feet and her legs weren’t used to being three inches of the ground.

Her heart melted and she slipped her arm through Cory’s, looking up at him. “Awww,” she whispered, so she wouldn’t break the spell. “Isn’t that one of the cutest things that you’ve ever seen?”

Cory beamed at her and nodded.

**.**

The next summer, Josh stayed with them while her in-laws went to Europe for much needed alone time.

Like they had predicted, Maya had sunk into some sort of depression because her parents had gotten divorced and she realized sometimes there wasn’t such a thing as _true love_. Topanga, Riley, Cory and Katy Hart had put their best efforts in but nothing could cheer the girl up.

Riley was too young and Katy was harboring sadness of her own because she had been the one to lose her whole entire life for another woman.

Cory and Topanga were reminders of everything Maya didn’t have anymore.

So, she called Amy and told her to warn Josh that Maya wasn’t the same girl she was the summer before.

Except the most amazing thing happened that summer. Josh was able to make Maya smile again, Topanga had been at work when it happened, so she didn’t hear about it until she got home and everybody tried to tell her about it all at once.

“Josh. . .”

“. . . he did it, mommy! He did it!” Riley shouted over her father as she tugged on her pencil skirt. “Uncle Josh _did it_!”

“He really did Topanga!” Cory said, beaming proudly at his youngest brother. “I thought it was gone for good!”

“I did too!” Maya piped in.

“Hold on a second!” Topanga said, using the universal signal for _time out_. “What exactly happened today?”

They all started to talk at once and that’s when Topanga noticed it. Maya’s lost smile was back on her mouth, her eyes brighter than they had been in a while. All the pieces fell into place and she smiled too.

“He did it!” Topanga repeated excitedly. “He got her to smile!”

They celebrated that night with pizza and ice cream and a Broadway show. They wore their best clothes, stopping on their way to buy a tie for Josh so he could wear it with his jeans and a white button down shirt.

And when the lights went down, Topanga looked over and saw that Josh was holding Maya’s hand as the orchestra started to tune up and the curtain lifted, the stage set for a play.

Topanga took Cory’s hand and smiled.

**.**

Josh and Maya were dancing at Morgan’s wedding. They were barefoot and happy, spinning around and around to an old song. Topanga was watching Cory watch them, a little breathless in her emerald green bridesmaid dress because it was a little snug around her growing baby bump.

Josh and Maya dancing was still adorable. But they were going to have years to watch them dance, so she went over to Cory and suggested they join them on the dance floor. He smiled and accepted her offer.

**.**

They didn’t meet again until Maya was 14 and Josh was 17 and it was Christmas. Topanga was a little frazzled because she was hosting Christmas for the first time and she didn’t want to mess it up. But she wasn’t too frazzled to notice the way they reacted to seeing each other again for the first time in years.

There was a hug and words that Topanga couldn’t quite make out but Josh and Maya were smiling. When Maya finally let go, Josh took one look at her and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well. . . you grew up gorgeous!” He said.

Topanga watched Maya’s face as he walked away. It looked like she was screaming internally, like she was on cloud 9, like all her Christmas wishes had come true with one phrase. Topanga caught Amy watching the pair’s exchange too and she was certain that her mother-in-law knew exactly what was up.

But this was the stage that Topanga had been anticipating. The one where the age difference would be significant, where Josh was starting college and Maya high school. If they were able to survive this then they would be able to survive anything.

Topanga hoped they would survive it, that they would come out of it as stronger friends and maybe something more. She saw the way Josh looked at Maya when she wasn’t looking, she heard the way he said he was too old for her but he didn’t say he _didn’t_ like her.

Topanga had Cory’s faith that _something_ was going to happen one day when the time was right.

**.**

In the meantime, she was subjected to catching a weak-kneed and starry-eyed Maya every single time Josh came through the door. It was almost humorous the way they reacted to each other. Her usually cool surrogate daughter was a mess around him. And her equally usually cool brother-in-law was a scared little boy around her.

There were a lot of late night cups of hot chocolate with Maya after his visits and the younger girl confided all the things in her that she couldn’t say to Josh. Like all the reasons she liked him and some secrets in between.

“He would sing songs to me when we were little kids and I couldn’t sleep,” Maya told her. “And even though my parents were divorced, I kind of thought I would marry him one day. And now I’m not so sure, I’m not so sure about anything.”

Topanga knew she should have told her that she was in the eighth grade and it was okay to be confused, that she was too young to think about marriage and forever and boys. But when she was 14 and had a huge crush on Cory, she hadn’t wanted to hear she was too young to feel what she was feeling.

So, she just listened and didn’t say anything at all even though her first impulse was to fix everything for the both of them.

**.**

One afternoon a few weeks after the girls had snuck out to the party at NYU, a distraught looking Maya left the apartment in a hurry. Riley was close at her heels, telling her not to go and do anything stupid.

Topanga stopped her daughter in her tracks.

“What is going on?” She asked.

“Maya and Josh got into a _huge_ fight,” Riley answered, struggling to follow Maya out of the apartment. “I think Maya’s going to confront him about it. She can’t just leave New York without telling anybody what she’s doing or where she’s going!”

“I’m pretty sure we know where she’s going,” Topanga told her.

Riley frowned. “But Josh doesn’t like her like that.”

“Oh come on sweetie, you can’t be _that_ oblivious!” Topanga said not unkindly.

Riley released a deep breath and wrinkled her nose. “I’m really _not_ , mommy! I just don’t want to believe it! Because that means Maya might be my aunt some day! And that’ll be really weird. But I don’t want them to fight, I like it when they get along and are friends.”

“I know,” Topanga soothed, brushing Riley’s hair away from her face. “You don’t have to worry about it right now though, they’re only old enough to be friends anyways. Come on and help me finish dinner.”

“But she’s still going to see him!”

“And I’m sure we’ll hear all about it when she gets back to New York,” Topanga answered, directing Riley to the kitchen.

And she was right. When _both_ Maya and Josh came waltzing into the apartment later that night, they both had a lot to say. Topanga could tell that things were back to normal between them, just like they were kids. Except there was a shift in their relationship too. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Later on, Amy told her about Josh’s quasi-confession in the kitchen, how they were friends and how he was a little stuck on Maya but he wanted her to live her life despite that fact because their time was still far away and he was afraid that she would miss out on something or she would wish she had dated somebody else.

Amy had told her how Maya had insisted she wouldn’t feel like she had missed out on anything by waiting for him.

It was the start of something new.

Topanga was anxious to see what happened next.

**.**

“Hello Family!” Josh sang out as he came into the apartment. “Is Maya around? I need to ask her something.”

“To prom?” Auggie asked, trying to raise an eyebrow.

“Auggie!” Topanga said, even though she was a little interested to see if that _was_ his question. “So, are you asking her to prom?”

“Even better! I just scored some of the most coveted tickets for _Finding Neverland_ , _the musical_!” Josh answered.

“Are you sure?” Topanga asked suddenly suspicious. “Those tickets are pretty hard to come by.”

“I’m sure!” Josh insisted, producing the tickets for her to examine.

Topanga frowned while she studied them. “Well, they are _real_ but Josh, they’re for the night of your prom! Don’t you want to go?”

“Not particularly, no,” Josh answered. “I mean, I could probably ask any girl and they would go with me. But I can’t bring the person I really want to bring or buy or a corsage or dance with her to the last slow song. But I can do _this_ and maybe I’ll get to see her dress up and tell her how pretty she looks.”

“But you’ll never get another prom,” Topanga tried to explain.

Josh shrugged. “You never know. I might.”

Maya and Riley came in just then.

Auggie grinned. “Maya, Josh has something to ask you,” he blurted.

“Yeah?” Maya asked, Topanga noticed she had gone a little breathless and her cheeks a little pinker.

“Would you like to see _Finding Neverland, the musical_ with me?”

“WOULD SHE!?” Riley shrieked. “She’s been talking about seeing _Finding Neverland_ for weeks!”

“I would love to go and see it with you,” Maya answered, her smile widening.

Two weeks later, Cory and Topanga were waiting for Josh and Maya to get back from the theater. They came in humming songs from the show and holding hands and they didn’t even let go when they were caught.

“I’m going to talk to Riley,” Maya said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

“How’d it go?” Topanga asked when the three of them were alone.

“She’s amazing,” Josh answered, looking in the direction she had left.

Topanga looked at Cory and smiled.

**.**

They were in the Cape Cod and Josh and Maya were spending all of their time together. They would disappear for hours on end, when they came home they were all smiles and inside jokes, they were stolen moments nobody else got to share except for the two of them.

One night when it was late and everybody was supposed to be in bed, Topanga woke up to music coming from the porch. She threw a kimono over her pajamas and crept downstairs to see what was going on.

Josh and Maya were still awake, watching the waves go in and out while Josh strummed his guitar, singing songs of love to Maya.

_“I want to tell you how much I love you, do you remember when we met? That’s the day I knew you were my pet. I want to tell you how much I love you. . .”_

Maya was smiling and moving her head in time to the music, her eyes closed like she was lost in the most wonderful of daydreams.

Topanga just watched them, not willing to go outside and pull the mom card and send them to bed.  It was a lovely picture, the two of them sitting on the porch with the ocean surrounding them, covered in stardust and moonlight.

So, she just watched them for a little bit longer before deciding to go to bed because it didn’t look like they would be going to bed anytime soon.

And she was right. Riley was more than happy to tell her that Josh and Maya had stayed up the whole night just to see the sunrise and wasn’t that the cutest thing ever?

Topanga poured maple syrup into Pyrex so she could heat it up before serving it with buttermilk pancakes and nodded in agreement, it was pretty cute, she had to agree.

**.**

Josh had agreed to be Maya’s prom date.

And she was finally 18.

Both Topanga and Cory hoped this is when _it_ would happen because at this point, it was inevitable. It had pretty much been the Josh  & Maya show for the past four years, senior prom was the perfect time to make it official.

She knew Lucas and Riley would be back together by the end of the night because he had asked permission to court her before he had invited her to go to prom.

But Josh and Maya were a lot less translucent. They were both playing their cards close to their chest.

Topanga knew that Maya was hoping for something to happen too though because once she had started hoping once upon a time ago, she hadn’t been able to stop. But she still wasn’t saying anything.

Except nothing happened. Cory and the kids had set it all up so something could happen, playing Maya and Josh’s song and clearing the floor for a solo slow dance.

Her husband had come home muttering how his little brother had missed an opportunity to finally take his and Maya’s relationship to the next level. They hadn’t even kissed and the atmosphere had been _so_ right for it. He was so upset, he flossed his teeth twice.

Topanga wondered just how long it would be before something more finally did happen. They’d already been waiting a long time, they couldn’t really wait too much longer to turn their friendship into something more. 

**.**

 

But spring turned into summer and summer turned into fall and before anybody knew it the holidays were there. But Josh and Maya were still stuck in the same pattern, friends on the edge of something more.

Topanga wasn’t sure what was holding them back anymore. Age wasn’t a factor anymore and they wouldn’t ruin the thing they had between them because it could only be better than good. She didn’t ask though, didn’t say anything to either of them.

It would happen when it happened.

And it did.

At the stroke of midnight, when the New Year came sweeping in and everybody in the family kissed their significant other. They were the only unpaired couple there, so it was only natural they shared a kiss because everybody else was doing it and even Josh and Maya weren’t above doing something everybody else was doing.

It lasted a few seconds longer than it should have for a New Year’s Eve kiss and when they had separated, they both left they both disappeared. Cory followed Josh, he had wanted to talk to him about Maya for a long time and now was as good a time as ever to do it.

Riley followed Maya to give her support if she needed it.

And everybody waited to see what would happen next.

**.**

A year later, they were engaged and building dream houses and planning a future _together_. They were talking about white lace (Maya was opposed to it) and promises and what they would name their kids.

Another year went by quickly and then Josh and Maya were making ‘til death do us part vows. They were radiant and happy and it was beautiful.

And Topanga couldn’t have been happier to be part of their life up to this point and beyond. It was the best kind of happily ever after.

 

**_The End_**

 

**.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of people are still asking for me to write from Lucas’ POV. And I am still not sure how I am going to do that. . . mostly because I am not sure if they want me to write how he is in love with Maya and willing to give it up because she is madly in love with Josh, or what. I am waiting for the right story to come to me. So, I’m sorry but you might be waiting a while. But I Shawn and Katy’s POV will be coming soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed Topanga’s POV and that you will tell me what you thought. I was blown away by the support for Amy’s story. Thank you so much! 
> 
> I’ll be back to regular posts next Friday. For now, enjoy this earlier installment of Casual Observers. And here’s a shameless plug, if you haven’t read Maya yet and you want something else to read while I am away, you can always go catch up on that. I will try and write chapter 2 when I have the time. I already started, actually.
> 
> Until Next Time!


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